dual booting

[Bailey_sufc]

ive got an 80g sata hdd drive with windows xp home on it and a spare 20 g ide hdd i want to put linux on it but how do i dual boot them with out disconecting the sata drive every time i want to use linux ?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Most any Linux distro will install a bootloader to the MBR. This will let you boot any OS when you switch the machine on.

Is there any particular distro in which you are interested? If you know specifically which one you'll use you can confirm that it has an automatically installed bootloader, thought I have het to see one that doesn't offer it.

 

[GraemeUK]

On a side note, I installed Ubuntu (which went fine, even got beryl working perfectly) then I added a hard drive with windows on and it (windows) doesnt show in the boot menu loader (grub) and I cannot log into ubuntu either (crash/error message during boot).

So what im saying is, if you are going to dual boot, have your windows hard drive plugged in when you install linux, just make sure not to erase it during partitioning.

 

[Bailey_sufc]

Most any Linux distro will install a bootloader to the MBR. This will let you boot any OS when you switch the machine on.

Is there any particular distro in which you are interested? If you know specifically which one you'll use you can confirm that it has an automatically installed bootloader, thought I have het to see one that doesn't offer it.

i was planing to disconect the sata drive when i do it to make sure i dont wipe it so is there a way after instulation(sp)

 

[GraemeUK]

i was planing to disconect the sata drive when i do it to make sure i dont wipe it so is there a way after instulation(sp)

Thats exactly what I did, and my post above is what happened...

Get this error when I connect all the drives back up after installation:

/bin/sh can't access tty; job control turned off (initramfs)

 

[Bailey_sufc]

Thats exactly what I did, and my post above is what happened...

Get this error when I connect all the drives back up after installation:

/bin/sh can't access tty; job control turned off (initramfs)

anyone me and graemeuk need help plz

 

[BillytheImpaler]

i was planing to disconect the sata drive when i do it to make sure i dont wipe it so is there a way after installation(sp)

Don't do that. It needs to be able to see the Windows installation so it knows where it is and can make a bootloader entry for it.

If I were in Mr. Graeme's position I'd probably reinstall Ubuntu and let it set up the bootloader itself. Doing it by hand is too much of a hassle, especially considering how quick a new installation is.

 

[GraemeUK]

Your too kind I will give it a go now and let you know how I got on. Fingers crossed

 

[GraemeUK]

OK that worked, I left all drives plugged in when I installed Ubuntu and made sure I installed it on the empty drive, grub (boot loader) installed to hd0 (main drive with windows xp on it) and now when the pc boots you can choose which OS to boot up.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

 

[Bailey_sufc]

i did the dual boot got and installed linux on the last bit it said (ithink) serve x your graphics need adjusting i was anoyed by this time i rebooted and when back into windows and the mouse won't work i tryed everything swaped them checked bios then i reformated and allworking file upto ye (touch wood)